By Kevin Worobec | Sept. 22, 2026

How Can AI and RFID Modernize Your Supply Chain?

Rising consumer demands and the relentless pressure to control labor and inventory costs are forcing supply chain leaders to rethink their operations. To build a truly resilient and sustainable business, organizations must move beyond basic tracking. Modernization today means connecting physical assets, inventory and workers with digital systems that enable intelligent, real-time decisions and deliver measurable results.

How Can You Build a Data-Rich Environment?

A fast return on investment starts with reliable, real-time asset visibility. This is why we’re seeing a massive acceleration in RFID  adoption. In highly regulated sectors such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, the need is especially critical.

Item-level tagging is essential to validate product authenticity and track items to the point of use, which helps prevent the distribution of counterfeit goods and ensures patient safety. By converting physical movements into reliable, actionable data, organizations can eliminate costly operational bottlenecks.

For example, a warehouse using RFID can automate inventory counts that once took hours of manual labor, freeing up workers to focus on higher-value tasks like order fulfillment and reducing the risk of stockouts.

How Do You Turn Visibility into Action?

Simply seeing what is happening in a facility is no longer enough. To truly bridge the physical and digital divide, organizations need to act on information in real time and create a complete, end-to-end solution that moves beyond fragmented, single-point systems.

Upgrading legacy systems from clipboards and pens or spreadsheets to intelligent software platforms enables inventory update automation. This enables workflow optimization and helps organizations respond dynamically to disruptions including unforeseen shipping delays or sudden changes in demand.

How Can You Empower Your Frontline Workforce?

A resilient supply chain depends on an empowered and connected frontline. Integrating AI into daily operations is crucial for delivering information that can be acted upon immediately to solve a problem or optimize an outcome. Equipping workers with modern, intuitive tools like mobile computers and tablets that provide AI-powered guidance accelerates training, lightens cognitive workload and according to our recent study with Oxford Economics, boosts overall job satisfaction. When organizations empower the frontline with this level of intelligence, they directly address labor challenges and significantly increase daily throughput.

Recently at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium, I sat down with Kent Landry, our Head of Sales for Intelligent RFID, to discuss these very topics. We explored how businesses can seamlessly connect physical and digital operations to tackle labor and inventory challenges, highlighting real-world examples from healthcare, retail and food distribution.

To hear our full conversation and learn more about how the right technology partnerships create optimized workflows, I invite you to watch the LinkedIn Live discussion here: Live from Gartner with Kevin Worobec and Kent Landry

Topics
Blog, Manufacturing, Transportation and Logistics, RFID,
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